Broken Glass
by Sailor Janus
Summary: Hotaru finds herself trapped in a middle of a traumatic nightmare. But dreams can't hurt you. Can they?


Broken GlassPRIVATE 

by

Sailor Janus

Disclaimer: I don't own Sailor Moon or it's characters

Author's Notes: I am in the process of writing two stories when suddenly this one came to me. Everyone has nightmares, but there are those that seem so real that you could swear that really are real and not some figment of our imagination. But a dream can't hurt you after all, or maybe it can. 

****

            _"What are you running from? There is no escape."_

            The words echoed in Hotaru's head as she raced through the dense fog. Something or someone was after her. Desiring to hurt her. No, worse, to kill her. 

            The girl's breathing was rapid as fear took control, reigning over her mind and body. 

_            "Run as you might. There is no escape."_

            Gasping for air, Hotaru found herself stumbling to the ground. "No!" she cried out as tears formed in her violet eyes. Wincing, she felt a sharp pain in the palms of her hands from when she caught herself during the fall. 

            Bringing her small and now shaking hands up towards her face, Hotaru couldn't find anything wrong with them since it was so dark, but she knew somehow, she had cut them.

            As if on cue, lightening struck, startling the dark haired girl as it revealed that her hands were now covered with blood due to the broken glass that she was now kneeling in. 

            With a gasp, she quickly stood up and started running. "It's coming," she thought as she quickened her pace. 

_            "Hotaru. Be a good girl and stop running. Hotaru."_

            The girl clenched her jaw, trying to fight the throbbing pain in her hands. "It's coming. Something is coming after me!"

_            "You're wrong, my child. It is here." _

            Hotaru suddenly lost her voice as she started choking. Something was hurting her. Squeezing it's deathly grip to her throat. Tears began to stream down her face more rapidly, as a hand reached up and stroked her face. A hand with a warm liquid coating it. "Blood." Hotaru realized as she looked down at her white dress which was now saturated with the crimson liquid flowing out of the large hole in her stomach. "My blood," she thought grimly.

            The hideous voice cackled, as it breathed her name in the dying girl's ear. _"Hotaru."_

*****

            "Hotaru!"

            The dark haired girl quickly opened her eyes feeling relieved that it was only a dream. 

            "Huh?! Oh, hi Setsuna-mama." Hotaru smiled, trying to appear cheerful. Even though Hotaru was now sixteen, she still called the outer senshi, whom she regarded as her second family, by the names she gave them in her childhood.

            "Hotaru, are you okay? It sounded like you were having a nightmare," the green haired woman softly said as she looked at the startled girl in the bed. "I could hear you screaming down the hall!"

            "I'm okay. It was just a bad dream and I really don't remember it," the girl smiled as her violet eyes sparkled. 

            "All right. I was just checking on you since you decided to stay here for the summer while your father is away. Try to get some sleep." Setsuna smiled as she rose to her feet and turned out the light before leaving the room, softly shutting the door behind her. 

            Hotaru, however, was not too pleased being left alone. "It was just a dream and nothing more," she tried to reassure herself, but was failing miserably in the process.

            Biting her lip she brought the blankets back up towards her chin and shut her eyes.

_            "Hotaru."_

            The girl's eyes popped open with a gasp as she looked around the room with dread.

            "You're just imagining things. Nothing can hurt you. That dream just has you freaked out. Nothing is in here but you. Nothing can harm you. You're just a little paranoid, that's all." Hotaru babbled to herself as she glanced wide eyed around the small dark room. "Oh why did Setsuna-mama have to turn out the lights!"

_            "Hotaru. Hooootaarrruuu."_

            The girl tried to scream but found she had no voice left. Soon tears began to flood her eyes. "Something or someone is in here!" Hotaru thought as she began to hyperventilate. 

            Trying to get her breathing back to normal, the dark haired girl brought her hands up to her face, when suddenly she cringed in pain. Removing her hands, she found small cuts on them. "But-but-but that's impossible! It was only a dream! My hands can't be cut! I-I must be hallucinating or something!" 

            Staring in disbelief at her hands, she tried to sit up but once again felt an extreme amount of pain, this time in her stomach. Almost mechanically, she dropped her hands to her abdomen and sure enough, there was blood. 

_            "Hotaru. You cannot escape."_

            "No! It's another nightmare! This isn't real! I have got to still be dreaming! THIS ISN'T HAPPENING TO ME!" Hotaru panicked as her eyes darted around the room, dreading what or whom she'd find before they landed on the door. "Can I make? I have no choice! I have to get out of here!" 

            Quickly, she swung her feet to the floor, placing them on what she thought was hard wood only to hear an odd cracking sound. "That sounds, like..... but it can't be!" she thought as she stood up and took a step, gritting her teeth as she felt sharp pain beneath her feet. To Hotaru's horror she slipped and fell with a shriek, landing once again on her hands and knees in broken glass. 

_            "Foolish girl. There is no way out for you."_

            Hotaru's head shot up as the voice mocked her. Slowly, she tried to climb to her feet, cringing every inch as glass burst and pierced into her fragile skin. "Who are you?" she screamed out as she looked wildly around the dark room. She couldn't take it anymore. It was too much. Her fear was beginning to absorb her as she shuddered with thoughts of what or who it might be. "I can't go hysterical again. I have to try to keep calm if I'm going to survive whatever it is that's after me. Please let this just be a dream. It has to be a dream! I'm still asleep!" Hotaru thought as she stood her ground.

            The voice seemed to be able to read her thoughts as it sinisterly laughed at frightened girl. _"Whoever said this was a dream, child?"_

            Hotaru froze and found herself at a loss for breath. Her eyes automatically began to water as she tensed up. Every single thought but one, left her mind as fear began to consume her and shock soon set in. She was going to die. 

            The voice continued to haunt her. Manipulate her as if she were a little puppet whose emotions were a plaything. _"There is no way out. Soon it will all be over."_

            The violet eyed girl managed to snap out of her already deteriorating position. "This isn't happening! You are only in my mind! You aren't real!" 

            Suddenly, Hotaru felt something tightly clutch the back of her neck, tightening it's grip, squeezing as hard as possible. Her knees began to weaken as she sunk to glass covered floor, flinching at the stabbing pain the fresh cuts caused her as the glass sliced into her knees. 

            Tilting her head down, Hotaru felt a new sensation, a sudden pain followed by numbness, as she glanced down at her chest. "My heart!" she thought as she opened her mouth only to realize that her mouth was rapidly filling with a metallic tasting liquid which she tried to spit out, knowing exactly what is was. 

            The dark red color almost seemed to taunt Hotaru. Laughing at the slowly, but painfully dying girl, whose insides felt like they were being ripped out one by one as she closed her eyes tightly, afraid of what she might see.

            She knew soon this torment would end. If only she could have known this was going to happen. If only she could have prepared, or prevented her tragedy. "What are the others going to say when they find my mutilated body? I'm sorry, I couldn't stop this. I'm sorry," she thought as the last few tears dripped down her face and she collapsed onto the broken glass. 

_            "Finally. My mission is complete."_ The voice thought as it wiped the blood off it's hands, leaving the room and the broken girl inside it. 

_            "What a shame she had to go so soon. I really enjoyed terrorizing her."_ The person thought as they removed the heavy hood that was attached to their cloak as they walked outside, breathing in the nightly sky, revealing a very pretty girl with violet eyes and short dark hair. 

            Smirking, the girl removed the cloak, throwing it to the ground. "Oh well, another night, another death, another identity." Hotaru, thought as the house behind her slowly faded away. "The nightmare scheme gets them every time. Don't they know what they can't see, can hurt them?"

The End


End file.
